Minolta XD11

This camera, along with the fabulous f/1.2 lens, matching flash and winder was the first really good, new camera I ever bought. I got it in early 1978 and it's still going strong. And it's still an important piece in my photographic arsenal.

This is the very first picture I ever took with my Minolta XD11, just after I purchased it in August 1978. I had studied up on all the features it possessed and one that intrigued me was the fact that, with the power winder and matching flash unit, it could take 36 flash photographs in a mere 18 seconds. That meant I could go through a whole 36 exposure roll of film in under 20 seconds! Another feature it had was the ability to take multiple exposures, i.e. double exposures and more. I envisioned combining both features to take several flash shots while re-exposing it over and over. But how many times should I expose it? I asked my sister to be my model and instructed her to walk across the driveway at night at a particular pace - not too fast or too slow. Everything turned out but I forgot to allow for any traffic that might drive down the road on just the other side of her from where I was set up. If you'll notice about 3/5ths of the way to the right, you can see a semi truck got exposed during one flash. It's big, boxy shape is quite distinct. Also, I didn't take into consideration that a gravel driveway would over-expose with too much light from the multiple flashes. That's why her legs are non-existent. They have washed out in the glow of the light-colored gravel. If you'll look at her facial expression real close, you can see that as she started out walking on the left toward the right, she was smiling real big at first. The smile quickly, and noticeably, fades as she moves along. All in all, I felt it to be quite an interesting first shot with my new Minolta. I had worked and saved up the $700 the kit cost (quite a sum back in the 1970's for a 17 year old!), and it was well worth it. I still have and use this camera. The kit came with a leather case big enough to cover the camera with the winder attached; it had a matching flash and a 50mm f/1.2 normal lens. I also waited until the all black version came out a little after the regular version. It cost a little extra, but black was my favorite color, so I had to have it. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor 100 ASA 35mm film Shooting program: Manual Date: September 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 First Roll 01ff

Taken in 1978, just after I'd first gotten my Minolta XD11. This was from the first roll of film I ran through it. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor, 100 ASA 35mm Date: Late 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. XD11 First Roll 07ef

This is my late Father winding an electric motor back in 1978 or so. He raised a family doing that his whole life.

These were the varsity cheerleaders for the Norris City Omaha High School 1978-1979 basketball season. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor II 100 asa Shooting Program: Aperture Priority Date: late 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5075 1979 03ef

Walter Payton, a running back for the Chicago Bears football team, was known as "Sweetness" for his moves carrying the football. This was a screen capture of my television during a game Chicago played against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For this photo, I remember that the local newspaper in my town had loaned me one of their telephoto lenses because they used a Minolta like I did. This was taken at a distance from my TV and zoomed in on just part of the screen. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor 100 Date: October 22nd, 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 NASCAR NFL 19hf

For The Sunday Challenge group, whose theme this week was Sunsets/Sunrises. Taken approximately 1978. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor 100 Date: November 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Multi 01-ef

A sunrise over my Dad's shop at the time. I've posted this before, but I did a new scan and probably got a more accurate rendition this time. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor 100 Date: November 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 05df

Travelling down the road to Omaha, Illinois. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor 100 Date: November 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 09ff

We had had a blizzard the night before and this was what it looked like the next day - sunny and cold! Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Tri-X, 400 ASA black and white film Date: December 9th, 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta Tri-X NCO Dec 8th, 1978 37hf

A picture of the family Christmas tree from 1978. Merry Christmas, everybody! Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor, 100 ASA 35mm Date: December 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 Christmas 1978 13-2hf

A picture of the family Christmas tree out of focus. I love how the shutter blades look on my Minolta. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor, 100 ASA 35mm Date: December 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 Christmas 1978 14hf

A nativity scene my late Mother arranged on our shelf. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor, 100 ASA 35mm Date: December 1978 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 Christmas 1978 12ff

I started taking pictures of the television screen back in the late 1970s of my favorite shows. Of course, Star Trek is one of my all time favorites. Using the multiple-exposure feature on my Minolta XD11, I would take multiple screenshots on one frame - kind of like my version of a Viewmaster reel. This particular episode was "The Doomsday Machine." This was at the end of the episode when Kirk and Spock were reviewing what just happened. The lab I was sending my film to to be developed always did this to the final frame of each roll. They would flash some kind of code, I suppose to identify who's film is was and then tape each roll end-to-end to be developed. This process usually ruined the last perfectly good frame on my rolls because, if you would work it right, you could get one extra shot on the roll past frame number 24. But the lab would always do this, ruining it. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor 100 ASA 35mm Date: 1979 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta Kodacolor 100 Smokey And The Bandit 25ff

Some nice rock formations located in extreme Southern Illinois. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor 100 ASA 35mm Date: 1979 Location: Southern Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF5035 Romayne’s Farm 18ff

Just a random flock of birds flying overhead that I happened to photograph. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Tri-X, 400 ASA black and white film Date: February 1979 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta Tri-X 1979 18ff

In January of 1979, Mrs. Roy, my high school librarian asked me to take some portraits of her. We used the typing classroom that was empty at the time. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor 100 asa Shooting Program: Aperture Priority Date: January 1979 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 Mrs. Roy 1979 05ff

A multiple exposure photo showing some opening frames from my favorite show, "Hawaii Five-O." The episode was called "The Bark And The Bite" and was broadcast first-run on February 8th, 1979. I would do multiple exposures like this because, one, it saved film by getting 9 pictures on one negative, and two, it was almost like those viewmaster reels that could show a movie in as little as seven frames. Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm, f/1.2 Film: Kodak Kodacolor Shooting Program: Manual Date: February 8th, 1979 Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A. Minolta KSF 5035 Feb 1979 07jf